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I Received a Parking Ticket That’s Not Mine

posted on January 13, 2009

Right before Christmas I received an overdue parking ticket in the mail. It has my name and license plate but it’s really not mine. I have never been to the location noted on the ticket. The vehicle description has the right make but the wrong color. Why did they think it was my car? I’m thinking they must have written down the wrong license plate number. Whoever got the ticket on the windshield just threw away the ticket after they saw the wrong plate number. I wrote a letter to dispute it. I had to send it by certified mail which cost me $3. How do I prove I wasn’t at that spot at that time? They must have heard that story many times. Except this time it’s really not me. Guilty until proven innocent? Let’s see how it goes.

Has this happened to you? Any guess on my chance of convincing them?

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Comments

Tough one. I’d guess you’ve got a very good case, since they got your car’s color wrong; that shouldn’t be possible with a parking violation.

I’ve seen news about a “prank” people play on their enemies by printing someone else’s license number onto a reflective sheet and taping that over their license plate, then speeding past one of those automatic speeding cameras. But this can’t be how it happened, since this was a parking violation.

I had this happen to me in the state of New York — I contested it (like you did, with a letter, although I didn’t bother with the certified mail), and there were no problems. They immediately dropped the fine/violation.

It should be easy to have it dismissed if the color is wrong. Your registration should have the color noted on it so send a copy. I had a ticket dismissed on technical grounds for such an inaccuracy in NY.

In California parking citations also have a box for the last 4 numbers of the VIN. The issuing officer is suppossed to look at the VIN on the dash and put in the last 4 numbers. This was put into law due to so many incorrect lic. plates being put on the cites.

When your “case” is reviewed the reviewer simply compares the lic. # to the last 4 VIN #’s. If they do not match the case is dismissed.

As a reviewer I run into cases like yours often. If I get a letter that remotely makes sense I dismiss. If the color is way off you should be ok. If you live far away that also helps. Good luck.

had surrendered plates for car after it was sold. have proof of surrender. Got ticket in mail with the surrendered plate and for the car in NYC the ticket was for a few days after the surrender date, sent copies of proof at least 2 times and NYC is still insisting we pay the fine. It will cost more for a lawyer then the ticket itself, Any advice.

Shela, the same happened to me. I sold my Vespa and surrendered the plates more than 2 years ago. I recently got a bill in the mail for parking in a commercial zone. I disputed it but they said the receipt wasn’t persuasive enough. I now got a frightening letter from NYC Finance collection division and it has some serious threats. I talked to someone on the help line and he said I should pay it to avoid any more penalties. I think this is a scam.

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. It sounds like I have a good chance of getting this dismissed. The color is off, but not way off. The ticket says black; my car is blue. I asked in my letter for a copy of the ticket written by the parking enforcement officer. Maybe they just transcribed it wrong into the computer.

I got a ticket for breaking red light in ny acutally not a ticket i got a notice to pay surcharge for ticket i never recived. I dont remember getting that ticket. I never got that ticket. what should i do? how do i prove that i never got ticket

i recieved notice of a ticket with my license plate# and its the old plates of my old car! i havent yet returned the plates but its impossible that the ticket is mine!!! they suspended my license for not paying of the ticket…. what do i do!!!! i shouldnt have to pay for it if it is not mine!!!! why do they do that???

I went to DMV in Maryland to get my new license and register my car, they said NJ had me down for tickets from 96 and 97. They said the tickets were on a Pontiac… I never owned a Pontiac. The kicker is I turned in my tags back in 1987. Talk about red tape bull crap…I asked the violations bureau for copies of the tickets they said they are too old we don’t have that information anymore… okay WTH!!!

I received in the mail today a notice of parking violation from Rockford Il. It has my name and license plate number but no vin#. I have never been to Rockford Il. My fine will increase to $50.00 if I don’t pay within 30 days How can I prove I was never there.

OMG I received a default judgment for a ticket issued to me – that I never received! It has all of my information! How is this possible? I was at work! I can provide a copy of my timecard showing this. But what if they imply that I loaned my car out which I did not. How do I prove any of this?

Hi. I got this speeding ticket in the mail, and the car isn’t even mine. i don’t own a car with those plate numbers nor do i own a silver ford, the car nor the license plate number isn’t mine, should i go further than a small dropped fine?

Report it to your local police right away. It is identity theft. The police will investigate and find the criminal who stole your identity. Police cars and police officers and state troopers have cameras. Detectives can get those pics or videos and see who is using a copy of your license or your plates.

I recieve a ticket at my old address .. Just going by to check old mail in I find a ticket in the mail from March 5 In Kennet square which is a hr away And I’ve never been to kennet square!!!!! The ticket was 15 and went up to 35 .. The name and tag num on the ticket is correct but the model of the car is incorrect .. It’s not mine in no ones drives my car and it possible I have a warrant … How is it that’s you can recieve a ticket with your name in tags correct but you never even been to the places you recieved the ticket from? FRAUD?? duplicate plate??? Screw up??? Wth…

You are not alone Kennet!. I just received in the mail an Atlanta Parking Citation for a car that’s not mine and to a place (Airport) I have not been since 2002. How this stuff happens is beyond me but it looks like some people dream on how to just make others life a constant battle.

Wrong color? Too bad says NYC! I received a notice in the mail that I received a parking violation in Manhattan. My vehicle is white and the color on the ticket says black, but my license plate number. Easy fix right? WRONG!! I called and the nice lady on the phone said just send in a copy of my registration showing the color. The following month I received a notice that a “hearing” was held and the administrative court judge found me guilty. WHAT??? I appealed my “conviction” with a bit more firepower. I sent in an affidavit from my boss (notarized) saying I was at work in NJ 70 miles away. I wrote a letter. I sent pictures of my vehicle with another copy of the registration. APPEAL DENIED!! The cost keeps going up!!! It was $80 and now we’re up to $105 and it was sent to a collection agency. I called the precinct where the ticket issuer works and spoke to a supervisor. Initially they tried to tell me that he scanned a bar code on my dashboard but he was incorrect, as NJ vehicles don’t have that bar code to scan. It all has to be entered manually on the little gizmo they carry around. So I told him, ask the ticket issuer which mistake was more likely, that he stood in front of a white vehicle and put in the color black, or that he stood in front of a black vehicle, entered the correct color black, and when he was poking at the keyboard on the gizmo maybe he entered an incorrect character? In any event the color of the vehicle and the license plate number on the ticket do not match any registration in the state of NJ. The plate number belongs to my white vehicle. I wrote to the collection agency with the same information. I haven’t heard from either one of them since but the ticket shows online as still outstanding. You can’t beat City Hall, even when they are wrong. I will never pay this ticket. Never.

My iticket is similar to yours but there were more erros on mine. My vehicle has never been in NYC. Ticket had wrong color, wrong year, wrong regitration expiration date and a notation that the car had a temp NYS registration sticker for 2015. Disputed, pointing out all these, with photos (deem not creditable) but every one of them as a whole was not enough to overturn. Judge said it didn,t matter if they were enter incorrectly. Appealed, with NYSDMV abstract proving my car didn’t have a temp reg issued in 2015 as hint by dispute judge was what i really needed. Nope, three blind men in the appreals court said it was still not reversible. Disturbing to me that it was prove beyond any doubt. Seems like they base there findings only on plate number. This is legalize extortion.

My iticket is similar to yours but there were more erros on mine. My vehicle has never been in NYC. Ticket had wrong color, wrong year, wrong regitration expiration date and a notation that the car had a temp NYS registration sticker for 2015. Disputed, pointing out all these, with photos (deem not creditable) but every one of them as a whole was not enough to overturn. Judge said it didn,t matter if they were enter incorrectly. Appealed, with NYSDMV abstract proving my car didn’t have a temp reg issued in 2015 as hint by dispute judge was what i really needed. Nope, three blind men in the appreals court said it was still not reversible. Disturbing to me that it was proven beyond any doubt with DMV record. Seems like they base there findings only on plate number. This is legalize extortion. I haven’t paid and will not pay on a fine my property didnt commit.

I have the same issue, I received notice of an overdue parking ticket in NYC. I was never there. I called and the clerk told me the ticketed car was blue, mine is grey. I appealled by mail stating that I was not in NYC and nobody else was using my car. I included a copy of my registration that has the color. It was denied. I have not paid and will never ever visit NYC.
I plan to send a letter to the mayors office and include everything. I am sure it will not do any good but if enough people complain maybe something will happen. I will be sure to let them know that I never plan to visit NYC again.

Same thing happened to me in California. I got a parking ticket from LA county and I live 4 hrs away. It’s been over 20 yrs since I have visited LA. The ticket had my license plate, wrong color,
wrong exp date/month and said VIN # not visible when it was clearly visible. I contested the ticket, but it was denied. So I called, and the man that answered told me that how could they be sure I did not have a paint job done on my car after the ticket, really?. I kept trying to talk to someone else (very hard to get someone to actually answer the phones). Finally a nice sounding lady told me to send any proof that I was not in LA at the time of the ticket and pictures of my car, which I did. I sent time sheet, a notarized letter from my employer, pictures, registration, service records before the ticket was issued proving the color of my car, etc. I got a letter that said, even though your evidence looks good, you did not submit it during the specified time frame so you have to pay the ticket. The ticket was originally $73 dollars and it went up to $273 which I had to pay in order to renew my registration which was almost due. DMV in my city could not help either since it was a different county. DMV said that I should pay it and fight it afterwards. Ticket plus my registration ended up being a little over $450. I am still trying to get my money back, but no luck yet.

I received a citation in the mail for a city that I have never been too. By the state map, it looks like it is about 4hrs away. Citation shows for being in a no park area between 2-5am. It had our license plate down but on citation where it shows year/make/model.. It showed Jeep. We have a Honda Pilot. There was not even a VIN# down on citation. We will be fighting this. It’s one thing if we actually did it..pay the fine and move on. But it makes me mad that they have a totally different type of vehicle attached to our license plate. I refuse to pay this fine!!!

Seriously SO I LIVE IN THE BAY AREA AND RENTED A CAR FROM A SLEAZY FUCKING PLACE TO SAVE MONEY! Some people from Afghanistan . .. Well so I came down to the valley Central Valley area in California wich is 3:30 hours away and was there till Sunday I got ticket in the mail for parking violation in l.a area? Seriously I’m infuriated I never was in that area , what really happened here is ducking dumb fuck probably had difrent plates on another car and I was driving with other plates and some dumb fucking idiot got my plates to my rental and came back to me there’s nothing I can fucking do but pay the fucking fine seriously this is so fucking irritating

Same thing occurred with me last month. I received a parking citation in the mail from 4 years ago saying i parked in a prohibited zone in a city i haven’t been to, a motorcycle ive never owned, with a license plate i didn’t have. I called and contested this and the clerk at the Municipal court accused me of lying and claimed i can issue more then one registration for a vehicle so anything could be possible. It’s been about a month and i received another warning of outstanding charges. I WILL NOT pay this fee as the ticket is not mine. They will NEVER steal my money.

I got a mail yesterday saying that there was a parking violation and it has my license plate alone matching and car and color are not matching. In fact I have not been to that place what they mentioned as violation location. So what should I do now? Any suggestion please.

Good luck fighting this. I had the same issue, I was not in New York at all but received a parking violation. I called to get a description of the vehicle and it was a different color than mine. I used the appeal by mail process, sent a copy of my vehicle registration to prove it did not match, but this was rejected and they said I still had to pay the ticket. I finally caved and paid so my credit rating would not be whacked. This is a racket used by New York City to increase revenue. I will never ever visit New York City, the administration and Police Department are crooks.

My daughter is trying to register her vehicle on line in Albany ny and it said she could not not because she has about 70 parking violations all over the state of New York and a few other states. She works in Albany ny she has never been to the places where the parking violations happened. What does she do?

DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT BUY A CAR FROM CIRCUS AUTO!(KY) they used all my information, gave me a NEW plate, kept the plate for the car(2008 Silver Chevy Impala) I bought from them(said they lost the plate) and issued it to someone else with every bit of my information. I bought my car from them in February(endish), 3 months later it’s broke down in the driveway, and on June 20th, a dark colored Ford receives a parking ticket which comes to me. NOT MY CAR, I call parc they pulled paperwork. I called the DMV gave them the plate number, they said it’s for MY car that I bought in February but they see I was issued a NEW plate. Circus used my information to get someone else into a car?????, then when I go to dispute it with the dealership they said oh it happens all the time like it’s no big deal?

Received a NYC violation in my name at a previous address for a license plate that might have been on a previous vehicle I owned, but it does not even appear to be from the state of Ohio where I reside. The vehicle pictured is certainly not my vehicle. This was all taken from a traffic camera. NYC has an online dispute form, but I have to wait 70 days for a judgement. Would it help to contact the Ohio BMV and License Bureau?

It’s March 12,2018, I live in Welland, Ontario.Today I got a letter from Hamilton parking authority advising me that I am late paying a parking ticket issued Feb.13,2018 in city of Hamilton, Ontario
The license plate on the ticket according to the DOT was last renewed in 1979 on a 1971 yellow Datsun.Ive never owned a yellow Datsun or that license plate.I called Ontario services on advice from the DOT and they say it is registered to me at my present address and I say that’s nonsense, you just asked me my address because you didn’t have it and now you are trying to pull a fast one.Get it through your heads, I’ve never owned a plate with that number nor have I ever owned a yellow Datsun and further in 1979 I owned a Dodge van with commercial license plates,also a 1973 Impala wagon.Licebse plates 40 years old are not legal in Ontario and have not been legal for a number of years, so can you explain to me how a parking ticket can be attached to license plates that have long expired in the year 2018 especially on a 1971 yellow Datsun? I live in city of Welland and drive a dodge ram truck with commercial license plates and I am a retired senior citizen whom has not even been in Hamilton, Ontario for over one year.Bottom line guess I have to launch a law suit against city of Hamilton parking authority

I got a citation in the mail recently for parking during 12 AM-3 AM at a no parking zone location about 700 miles away from my residence. They had my plate, make and color of the car right and I have no ideas how?! I was at home sleeping with my car parked in the garage hence I contested the citation immediately online. Lucky for me on the same day/morning the ticket was issued, I went shopping at various places around the city where I live, and I still have the receipts with the time stamped on them to show that I couldn’t have travel that far, parked there for a few hours then drove back home to go shopping. They dismissed the citation within a week after I filed the complaint; however it made me realized because of someone else’s sloppy job/mistake, it could cost me some $ for something I didn’t do if I didn’t have any proofs at all!

I have a question, I received a parking ticket, all information is right in it except the licnese plate, it is missing the last digit. I tried to pay online and they did not have record on it. I called the treasurers office of Troy NY and the woman on the other end said that if the license plate # is wrong then its not my ticket…and I dont need to pay it, but I’m not sure what to do..someone help.

I just received a letter in the mail from “Parking Violations Bureau City of Los Angeles.” In this letter they are accusing me of having an expired meter at a place I never was (some random place I never heard of in LA). The kicker, somehow my plate # is correct, but the car AND color are waaay off. No VIN# either anywhere on this letter. Am I being pranked? Is this literally happening? I shouldn’t have to send anything to them and pay out of pocket. I even have photo evidence I was in Riverside literally during that time…. so how could I take photos on my phone in one area then within 9 minutes be in LA? I literally moved to CA just over a year ago and this state is horrible. They don’t seem to have their crap together. Thinking of moving back.

TODAY I RECEIVED AN E-ZPASS VIOLATION IN MY NAME WITH MY PLATE # FOR NOT PAYING THE TOLL ON THE GS PARKWAY IN WOODBRIDGE, NJ AND I KNOW WASN’T ME BECAUSE I DON’T DRIVE IN THE HIGHWAY OR DRIVE AWAY FROM MY HOME TOWN. I’M THE ONLY DRIVER. AFTER I CAREFULLY CHECKED THE TICKET AND WENT ONLINE TO LOOK FOR DETAILS AND THE PICTURE OF THE CAR, I FOUND OUT THAT IS NOT EVEN MY CAR. THIS ONE IS A TOTALLY A DIFFERENT MAKE, MODEL& COLOR. HAS MY SAME PLATE & I DON’T GET IT. TOMORROW I’M GOING TO DMV AND I’M BRINGING MY DRIVER LIC.,THE TITLE & REGISTRATION AND PICTURE OF MY CAR TO SEE WHAT IS GOING ON. DOES SOMEONE KNOWS IF IS POSSIBLE THAT TWO VEHICLES HAVE THE SAME PLATE?? AND WHAT WOULD BE THE CORRECT STEPS TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM. WHY YOU THINK THIS HAPPEN? I RARELY GET A TICKET, MAYBE 1 FOR METER A YEAR AND NOW THIS HAPPENS.

In Dec 2018, I received a Nassau County, NY (Long Island) parking ticket for parking in a “No Commercial Parking” zone in Oct, 2018. The plate number is to a plate that the dealer registered my newly purchased truck with in May 2016. A month or so later, I changed the plate to a custom vanity plate number. I tur no the original plates into NY DMV in Amityville, NY. I received no receipt for turning in the plates because Amityville had switched to simply having old plates tossed into a big cardboard box on the DMV floor near the information attendant. They used to have you surrender the plates at a window and get a receipt as proof……Anyway, so I called Nassau DMV to ask what this ticket was. The woman looked up the ticket and told me it was for “a white Ford delivery truck, parked at an intersection in Nassau County in October.” I told her that the plate number was a former plate I had for approximately one month and had surrendered in June or 2016 at a box at a DMV in Suffolk a County. I also said they were registered to a DARK GREY, FORD F250 PICKUP TRUCK, not a white delivery truck. Plus I have had different custom vanity plate size on my truck for the last 18 months and never have been to the place where the ticket was issued,” The woman said they would “investigate and get back to me.” A few weeks later she called back and said they would send me “a new court date” (I was never sent the first one, since I never go to the alleged ticket) and that’s I would need to appear in court to “bring proof if you want to contest the ticket.” You would think that they would have sent me a copy of the ticket but they didn’t. Woman said she “entered a plea of ‘not guilty’ ” for me, since I never got the original ticket or notice to do so in time for the first court date, whenever that was. Apparently, the have no VIN info from the actual truck they ticketed. So, either the person who wrote the ticket wrote the wrong plate number down or someone picked my surrendered plates out of the cardboard box at the DMV and is using them illegally. Either way, this is a royale pain is n the ass and it is insane that anyone should have to waste their time defending against something that never happened. So, I have to show up in court Feb 5, 2019. I have an old 2016 photo of my grey F250 with the old plates and both dated repair shop bills showing my truck with the vanity o,antes since 2016, as well as photos. But, if the person writing the ticket did not note the VIN number or plate expiration date, I do not think I have any way to prove that my former plate was not on the “white delivery truck” in October, 2018? There seems to be no way to defend against an incorrectly written license plate number without corresponding info about the vehicle?

Received a judgement letter in March 2018 from Alameda County Transit in California for outstanding ticket – $80. Never been to the location or violated the code (parking near fire hydrants). It had my name and address but wrong car and plate number. I called them and they told me to write a letter to contests. My busy life got in the way, they didn’t bother me, so I didn’t take any action. That was my mistake. In November 2018, received a notice saying that the past due ticket is going to a collecting agency. This time, they switched the vehicle information to my current registered vehicle, so all information on the paper was correct. I called them again, found out that this is related to the one that I had received in March. I explained to them again and the agent told me to write a letter. At this point, the fine doubled and it was $160. This time I wrote a letter and requested for further investigation. No response. Then when I got the registration renewal I see the 160 is added on my fee. Called dmv and they told me unless I pay, the sticker will not be issued. I called back the Alameda County Transit, they claimed they never received my letter, on top of that the lady told me i don’t know why the other person suggested that but it’s too late to contest anyway.
Although I’m pissed off about the situation, I didn’t have time or energy to put up with this none-sense, so I paid the 160 for something that I didn’t do.
The system is really messed up and I learned the hard way.

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